1. Before we started working together, where were you at?
I felt completely stuck with my fitness training, & was struggling to fit what I thought I should be doing into my busy life. I was beating myself up that I wasn’t going to the gym enough, or losing any weight, I was feeling terrible about myself & my general well-being & appearance. I was wanting to prioritise my fitness & time for myself, however other aspects of my life were making this difficult.
2. What originally made you reach out to Charlie?
Initially I was simply hoping that Charlie would simply help me get a bit fitter & lose weight, & would help me look at how to do this. As our sessions progressed I entered an outdoor Hyrox type event, which gave me a fitness focus to work towards.
3. What did the process actually involve for you?
We generally had weekly or fortnightly sessions, a lot of which were largely conversation & reflection based. There were focussed gym sessions, which included specific event preparation, as well as a couple of running sessions, & Charlie also set a hyrox training programme, as well as reflection tasks, that included reading particular books or looking at the pressures on me & how I allocated my time to these.
Entering the event was the mindset change for me, as it gave me something to work towards, focussing my training & realising I didn’t have to do everything all the time. It also gave me a greater understanding of the building up to an event, & how I could build my fitness & strength up gradually.
4. How did you find the process itself?
I wasn’t expecting so much talking & reflection, & I found that hard, because I don’t like looking inwardly at myself, I find that quite uncomfortable, but realised that was instrumental to moving myself forwards.
The training I found easy, as I had a clear programme & saw my own progression, which really motivated me. It was also achievable to fit it into my other fitness activities & busy life.
5. What stood out most about Charlie's approach?
I think Charlie had a good understanding of where I was at before we started working together, although he was thorough in ensuring he had a full picture of what was going on for me before we started moving the work on. I had a clear picture at the start of how we were going to work together, for how long, & how the sessions were largely going to be structured. The programme was fully individualised, & although Charlie & I already knew each other, his coaching was professional & largely fun!
6. What changed as a result of the work?
I did get fitter. My running got faster and better. I toned up. I managed to prioritise a number of my other responsibilities to allow me to focus on my own time without feeling guilty. Life does continue to get in the way of my fitness but I no longer beat myself up as I realise that I can maintain and improve my fitness by re-focussing what I am doing, & without spending the time on it that I thought I needed to. I’ve also moved to combine a number of the things I need to do, so I spend more time with friends or my son exercising together or being outdoors for example.
7. Did you achieve what you originally came for?
Yes, like I said above, I got fitter & I got better at organising my fitness around the rest of my life. I think however, entering that Hyrox event was the catalyst for getting me to focus more.
8. If someone was considering working with Charlie, what would you tell them?
I think it depends on what their specific reasons for engaging are, but it really helps that someone knows why they want to do this – I was a bit vague at the beginning, I just know something needed to change but I wasn’t sure what. Charlie did help focus that down though. I think they need to be prepared to talk, to reflect & take a bit of an inward look at themselves, & that might be uncomfortable, but it’ll be ok.
